Survival
by Blondygirly98
Summary: After their Quinjet crashes, Tony and Steve are stranded in a forest, thankfully unharmed but with no way to get back home. Luckily they are able to communicate with the other Avengers, but have to spend the night in the forest until help arrives. One particular question is on Tony's mind – how are they going to stay warm tonight? Pairings: Eventual Steve/Tony.


**Summary: After their Quinjet crashes, Tony and Steve are stranded in a forest, thankfully unharmed but with no way to get back home. Luckily they are able to communicate with the other Avengers, but have to spend the night in the forest until help arrives. One particular question is on Tony's mind – how are they going to stay warm tonight?**

**A/N Just another random Stony oneshot from yours truly. Would be great if you could review :3 Also Tony and Pepper were never together in this, and Steve never really loved Peggy that way.** **Thanks to my beta GotDance45 for, well, beta-ing. **

"Stark, engine one is down." Steve calls worriedly from the cockpit in the Quinjet.

"Down? What do you mean, down?" Tony repeats, getting out of his seat in the back and walking over to the super soldier, resting his hand on the back of Steve's seat."Down as in not working, and we're losing power. Rapidly." Steve adds, flicking various switches while warning lights flash red and a juddering sound comes from the back of the Quinjet.

"Let me guess, that was engine two?" Tony asks bitterly.

"I'm trying to locate a landing point, but we're flying over a forest, there's nothing but trees below." Steve ignores Tony's comment, which is confirmation enough.

"I can fix it." Tony pipes up, turning on his heel to grab the necessary tools from the back.

"There's not enough time." Steve calls. "In about two minutes, we're either landing or crash landing. Better strap yourself in."

Tony hesitates for a moment, but then decides to follow Steve's advice and straps himself securely into a seat.

"All buckled up!" Tony says, but his voice is drowned out by a sudden bang that causes the whole Quinjet to shudder. "Steve, are we landing or crash landing?"

The blonde doesn't reply, not because he's ignoring Tony, but because he hasn't even heard him. He's suddenly barely aware of himself, and the situation he's in. All he feels is the rushing sense of déjà vu, and images of crashing a plane into the ocean flit across his mind, leaving him temporarily frozen with sudden fear.

"Steve!" Tony shouts, snapping Steve out of his paralysis.

"I got this!" Steve calls back, slowly lowering the Quinjet.

His eyes frantically scan the forest for a clearing or stretch of rock or somewhere he can land safely, but it looks like he'll have to somehow land the Quinjet on the trees.

"I got this." Steve repeats positively, mostly as a reassurance for himself.

Although, he has to admit he curses loudly as the Quinjet crashes into the trees, and everything goes black.

* * *

Tony's eyes suddenly snap open, his vision blurry. He rubs at his eyes and groans when sharp pain shoots through his neck.

"Tony? Are you alright?" Once Tony's vision clears, he sees Steve leaning over him, frowning in concern.  
"I think I got whiplash." Tony says, slowly sitting up with Steve's help.

He looks around and realises that they're on the ground and about five feet away is the Quinjet, which is a mangled wreck hanging upside down in a tree.

"Whose idea was it to let _you _pilot the jet?" Tony teases as Steve helps him stand up.

"I think you insisted." Steve replies and gestures to the Quinjet. "There is no way we are getting that back up in the air. Both engines are down, and I think one blew up while we were in the air."

"How did you get us out?" Tony asks, rubbing his neck.

"I unstrapped you and then smashed through the window." Steve tells him.

"Well, thanks." Tony says sincerely. "I have tools in the back, if I could get to them somehow I could probably try to fix it –,"

"You're not going to try." Steve cuts him off sternly. "If either of us gets back in that thing it's just going to come crashing to the ground."

"Yeah, but you're strong, can't you just gently _lower_ it to the ground?" Tony says, half joking, half not.

Steve just gives him a look, and Tony shrugs.

"Anyway, I managed to grab this after I grabbed you." Steve holds up a comm unit that Tony hadn't noticed he'd been holding. "It's not damaged, so we should be able to contact S.H.I.E.L.D or someone at the tower."

Steve puts it on and presses the button, static immediately filling his ear.

"Captain America here, does anybody copy?" Steve waits, and when there's no reply, he tries again. "It's Captain America and Iron Man here, our jet crashed and we're stranded. Does anybody copy?"

"Try standing somewhere with a higher altitude to get a better frequency." Tony suggests, and Steve nods.

He looks around and spots a small clearing at the top of a hill and quickly runs up it, the static noises becoming irregular as he does.

"It's Captain America here, does anybody copy?" Steve calls loudly, and somewhat hopefully.

There's a burst of static that may or may not have sounded like his name.

"Hello? Is there anybody there?" Steve says.

"Steve!" The static disperses and Natasha Romanoff's voice comes through loud and clear. "What's your situation?"

"I'm here with Tony, and we crashed the jet and now we're stranded."

"Give me two seconds, I'm about to get a lock on your location."

Steve glances over at Tony, who's looking at him expectantly.

"It's Natasha." He calls, and Tony smiles with relief.

"Ok, Steve? You still there?" Natasha asks.

"Yes ma'am." Steve replies.

"We've got your location, but we've also got a problem. We can't get anyone out to you for about six hours – we can only get to you by jet and the jets are either all in use or in repair. Someone infiltrated the Helicarrier and set off a bomb, and most of the Quinjets got caught in the explosion. The others are being used to hunt down the spy. Think you'll be alright for six hours?"

"Roger that. Don't waste your resources on us, just locate the person who bombed the Helicarrier." Steve says earnestly, while Tony snorts in protest.

Steve ignores him as he says goodbye to Natasha.

"So . . ." Tony drawls. "What's going on?"

"They can only get to us by jet, and since someone bombed the Helicarrier, most of the jets are in repair or being used to hunt down the spy. Natasha reckons it'll be six hours before they can rescue us." Steve explains, and Tony groans.

"Six hours? It's going to be the middle of the night by then. And dark. And cold."

"We'll survive." Steve looks slightly amused.

"That's easy for _you _to say; your superhuman metabolism will keep you warm."

"Well, we can share body heat." Steve shrugs.

Tony's eyes widen as this sinks in.

"You mean _snuggle_? Are you coming on to me, Steve?" He raises an eyebrow.

"No!" Steve flushes. "I'm thinking in terms of survival, Tony. And it wouldn't be "snuggling" it would be . . ."

"Bro cuddling?" Tony tilts his head.  
"Ok, let's go with that." The blonde nods.

Tony lets out a long sigh as he takes in the trees and otherwise bland vegetation.

"I wonder what people do for fun around here."

* * *

Around eight o'clock – by Tony's estimation – it gets so cold that Tony has goosebumps and the ground they're sitting on is damp. Steve, meanwhile, seems to be radiating heat next to him, but Tony refuses to take up Steve's earlier offer of sharing body heat. Sure, Steve would be so warm, and it _would _be nice to snuggle up to that body of his . . . Tony's eyes widen slightly at these thoughts, mostly because this is not the first time he's fantasised about Steve.  
He quickly looks around to distract himself, although there's not much to see, as basically everything around them is shrouded in very dim light. Tony's arc reactor is shining brightly from his shirt and acts like a mini torch, which is sort of handy, but Tony's worried that the light will attract bugs, or you know, some wild, ravenous animal.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Tony grits his teeth as a cool breeze sweeps through the area, rustling the trees and making a very unimpressed Tony Stark even colder.

"Cold?" Steve asks, seemingly genuinely, but Tony doesn't miss the hint of a tease in his voice.

"No, fine." This obviously a lie from the way he pulls his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around his legs.

"If you get cold, wake me up." Steve says gently. "I'm going to take a nap."

Once Tony is one hundred percent sure Steve is fast asleep, he whispers, "I'm cold."

He looks over at the sleeping man next to him, and decides that survival is more important to him than dignity right now, so he lies down next to Steve and wriggles closer so that he's pressed against Steve's back.

Steve simply smiles in his sleep.

* * *

They wake up an hour later when the Quinjet comes crashing down from the trees, jolted awake by the sudden bang in an otherwise silent night. And at the same time, they realise the compromising position they're in. In his sleep, Steve has rolled over to face Tony, wrapped an arm around his middle and swung a leg over Tony's hips.

"Um." Steve blinks.

"Well." Tony looks up at him with a smirk. "Hello there."

"Sorry." Steve blushes, rolling off Tony and onto his back. "I don't know how that happened, um, sorry."

He's certainly surprised when Tony's hand comes to rest over his stomach, his body pressed against the supersoldier and his legs entwined with Steve's.

"Don't be sorry. Body heat, remember?" Tony says, his face basically nestled in Steve's neck, and Steve certainly feels heat specifically travelling south.

"Um, right. You got cold then?" Steve says, feeling a need to make conversation.

"Yes, and I decided warmth is better than dignity right now." Tony replies, and Steve feels rather than hears him sigh. "I'm still not as warm as I thought I'd be though."

"Uh, sorry?"

"It's not your fault," Tony chuckles, "it's because we're wearing clothes."

"What?" Steve sits up suddenly, Tony following but slowly.

"Skin-to-skin contact is the proper way to get body heat. But if that's gonna make you uncomfortable, don't worry about it. They'll be here in a few hours anyway." Tony shrugs and lies back down, facing away from Steve.

Steve just sits there for a moment, staring at the brunette, before leaning over him and touching his hands.

"What are you doing?" Tony asks bemusedly.

"You're hands are freezing cold." Steve comments, and Tony rolls over to look up at him. Steve's eyes scan Tony's face and he adds, "and your lips are blue."

"It's probably just the light from the arc reactor." Tony shakes his head.

"And you have goosebumps." Steve's hand lightly travels down the length of Tony's arm. "Take your shirt off."

"You really are coming on to me." Tony smirks, but takes his shirt off and Steve does the same.

They lie back down, Steve's bare chest pressed against Tony's bare back, and Steve's arm around Tony's middle, and Tony has to admit he's much warmer now.

"You know," Tony pipes up a moment later, "I think that with anyone else, this would be awkward."

"Really?" Steve doesn't really know how to answer that. He's still trying to get certain thoughts out of his head, but it doesn't seem to be working as he blushes when he feels something happening down below.

There's a moment of silence before Tony says, "Correction, things just got awkward."

Steve shifts away from Tony, but before he can get very far, Tony tugs him back and says, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Um, I thought I was making you uncomfortable." Steve admits sheepishly.

"I was joking." Tony says. "And don't worry about it, I usually have that affect on people."

"What do you mean? Making them feel like they're making you uncomfortable or . . ." Steve is too embarrassed to say it.

"Both." Tony chuckles, the sound vibrating through his body and with Steve pressed up against him that is not what the blonde wants right now.

Well, he finds that he does, but doesn't at the same time because things are awkward enough as it is and Tony is most definitely straight. Or is he?

"Tony –," Steve starts to ask, but Tony interrupts by moaning, "Fuck you are so warm, why didn't we do skin-to-skin contact earlier?"

Don't blame Steve for suddenly rolling Tony over, leaning over him and kissing him tentatively on the lips.

He pulls back almost straight away, frowning worriedly at Tony's "well then" expression.

"I'm sorry, God, I am so sorry," Steve goes so pink Tony can almost see it in the dim light. "I'm so embarrassed, and sorry, I've just ruined our friendship, haven't I? God, I'm sorry Tony, I haven't had much experience with this sorta stuff, and you're a guy and I'm a guy and you like girls, and I _should _like girls, but I don't, I never did and –,"

"Wait, Steve, are you trying to tell me you're gay?" Tony interrupts.

Steve nods numbly.

"Oh, thank fuck." Tony breathes a sigh of relief and Steve tilts his head.

"What? You're not . . . disgusted by me? You don't hate me?" Steve asks carefully, and Tony shakes his head.

"You're gay, and that makes things so much easier." He laughs.

"What things?" Steve frowns.

"These things." Tony says, and pulls Steve down and presses their lips together.

* * *

Around midnight there's the whirring sound of a jet and before Steve or Tony can react, a light shines down on them.

"Come on, you two, get in." Clint calls amusedly over the loudspeaker as a ladder drops down from the Quinjet.

Steve and Tony are once again entwined in each other's bare arms and it must look very wrong to Clint, but at least he didn't catch them in their one-hour make out session. They jump up, grabbing their shirts and pulling them on and then they run over to the ladder. Steve makes Tony climb up first, Tony making a joke about Steve wanting to check out his ass as he climbs, and then they're finally in the Quinjet.

Natasha is also in the cockpit with Clint, and she turns to face Steve and Tony with a smirk on her face.

"You two looked rather cosy down there."

Steve and Tony exchange a glance and Steve looks back at Natasha and says unconvincingly, "Tony was cold."

Natasha just raises an eyebrow while Clint outright laughs.

"Oh please, you're totally gay for each other."

"How – why would you say that?" Steve splutters.

"We're spies." Natasha points out. "You can't hide anything from us."

"And Clint already knows that I kind of check your ass out all the time." Tony admits, grinning at the flustered supersoldier.

Steve just shrugs and says, "Well, if we're being honest here, I guess I have to say that I kind of check your ass out all the time too."

Tony simply beams happily, and somewhat smugly, while Natasha calls back, "we'll go back home and then pick up the wreckage of your Quinjet tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me." Tony comments, as he and Steve sit down in the back, Steve's arm going around Tony's shoulders.

"Not only do I kind of check your ass out all the time," Steve says quietly to the brunette, "I kind of like you, a lot."  
"Well, _that _wasn't obvious from the boner you got when you were pressed up against me." Tony grins lewdly. "And I kind of like you too."

Steve grins boyishly, like a little kid who just got both an ice cream and a puppy, and it's because of this smile that Tony can't help but laugh and kiss his new boyfriend happily.


End file.
